Ratification "is vital to ensuring transparency and trust between the United States and Russia, a critical relationship for a range of strategic concerns," wrote AJC President Robert H. Elman and Executive Director David Harris in a letter to all 100 Senators.

The New START Treaty would resume critical nuclear inspection programs that had been in place since the end of the Cold War and ceased with the December 2009 expiration of the first START treaty.

In addition to resuming those verification mechanisms and aiming to reduce U.S. and Russian nuclear stockpiles, treaty ratification will reaffirm U.S.-Russian cooperation on other pressing strategic threats.

"The U.S.-Russian relationship is central to the effort to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions," the AJC letter stated. "Failing to ratify New START could undercut U.S.-led international efforts to exert maximum political and economic pressure on Iran."

AJC pointed out that the treaty's supporters, including former secretaries of state and defense, span the political spectrum.

"Prompt ratification of the New START treaty serves the nation's highest strategic interests," Elman and Harris concluded in their letter.